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Nailing Down Nudes: What's Your Shade?

If we had to take a poll about the go-to nail colour of women everywhere, a chic nude would without a doubt be the unanimous winner (besides the eternal red, of course). Manicures aside, the flesh tone is going places of late, thanks to its lengthening, elongating and camouflaging powers. Exhibit A: the recently launched UK born nude-coloured lingerie line answering prayers of women of colour everywhere, and Exhibit B: Christian Louboutin’s gift to us in the form of a nude shoe collection, featuring five gradient shades designed to fit like second skin. The crisp neutral is obviously here to stay for a very long time, because what’s better than your own skin tone?

Funnily, that’s where the trouble arises. What is a nude really? The colour of my skin, the colour of yours or the next person’s? Especially when it comes to nail lacquer, where you want to give your fingers the illusion of length, choosing a nude can be tricky business. And there’s also the classic impediment of the product looking way different on your nails than it did in the bottle.

Well, as far as basic guidelines go, pick a nude that’s closest to your skin tone; the idea is to create the effect of extended skin to add length. If you’re on the fairer side, choose nudes with blue or yellow undertones; if you fall in the medium-fair spectrum, try pink-undertoned nudes. As for darker skin tones, deeper nudes look gorgeous, but so do light, pearly ones if you like the pop of colour. However, truth be told, you’ll only find your perfect shade by kissing a few frogs and then some. So play around with textures (mattes, subtle shimmers) and layering (try two coats to discover a whole new shade), because trial-and-error is the name of the nude game. Happy hunting!

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